INTRODUCTION

This project presents an interactive dashboard analyzing global liver cancer mortality rates and smoking prevalence patterns using Gapminder data. The analysis focuses on gender-specific trends, cross-country comparisons, and continent-level summaries to uncover public health insights that can inform policy and awareness campaigns.

The primary objective is to explore the relationship between liver cancer death rates and smoking behaviors across different countries, with a focus on how these patterns vary between men and women. The dashboard integrates multiple visualizations, including line charts, bar graphs, bubble plots, and choropleth maps, to reveal trends, disparities, and potential correlations in the data.

The dataset includes liver cancer deaths per 100,000 people for men and women from 1990 to 2019, as well as smoking rates for men and women (aged 15 and above) in the year 2005. These metrics are complemented with region-based aggregations to identify continents with the highest and lowest burden.

By combining epidemiological and behavioral data, the dashboard offers a rich platform for exploring the intersections of lifestyle, geography, and public health outcomes related to liver cancer.

Male lowest Rate

0.91

Niger

Male Global Average

8.4

Male Peak Rate

146.0

Mongolia

Female lowest Rate

0.4

Niger

Female Global Average

3.9

Female Peak Rate

92.1

Mongolia
Loading ITables v2.4.3 from the internet... (need help?)
Summary Line Chart):
The graph presents the trend in liver cancer death rates among men and women from 1990 to 2022 for four countries: Brazil, China, Japan, and Egypt. China made significant progress in reducing liver cancer deaths, while Egypt experienced increasing rates before stabilizing. Japan shows steady improvement, and Brazil maintained low and stable rates.

Trend Summary(Male):
Between 1990 and 2019, liver cancer deaths in men have shown varying trends globally.
Countries like Mongolia and Gambia have consistently reported high rates, while developed nations such as the US and Japan have seen more stable trends.
The global average in 2019 stands at 8.40, with Mongolia having the highest rate of 146.00 deaths per 100,000 men.

Trend Summary (Female):
From 1990 to 2019, liver cancer death rates in women have trended differently across regions.
While some countries such as Mongolia report extreme high rates, other countries show gradual improvements.
The global average in 2019 is 3.90, with Mongolia experiencing the highest rate at 92.10 deaths per 100,000 women.

Gender Comparison Summary:
This analysis highlights gender disparities in liver cancer death rates as of 2019.
Some countries show significantly higher mortality in men than women, reflecting behavioral, biological, or healthcare access differences.
Palau has the highest male-to-female ratio at 11.48, while Pakistan shows the smallest gap with a ratio of 0.65.
These insights can guide gender-sensitive public health interventions.

The bubble chart visualizes the average smoking rates among men and women across continents in 2005. Each bubble represents a continent, with its size proportional to the number of countries represented in the dataset.

Key Insights:

Europe has the highest average female smoking rate (~27%) and one of the highest male smoking rates (~41%), indicating widespread smoking habits among both genders.

Asia shows the highest average male smoking rate (~43%) but significantly lower female smoking rates (~8%), suggesting a large gender gap in smoking behavior.

Oceania closely follows Europe in male smoking prevalence (~41%) and has a moderate female smoking rate (~20%), suggesting more balanced smoking patterns across genders.

America presents a moderate pattern with male smoking around 30% and female smoking around 17%, indicating a relatively smaller gender gap.

Africa has the lowest female smoking rate (~4%) and a relatively lower male rate (~23%), suggesting smoking is less prevalent, especially among women.

The small bubble labeled “not found” likely represents data points with undefined continent classification. It has low values for both male and female smoking.

Interpretation of the Charts: Male vs Female Smoking Rates in Asia (2005)

This bubble chart visualizes male and female smoking rates in various Asian countries in the year 2005.

Bubble Size: Gender gap in smoking rates (Male % – Female %)

The chart illustrates a significant gender disparity in smoking across most Asian countries in 2005. The public health burden of smoking in Asia is heavily male-dominated, pointing to the need for targeted anti-smoking policies for men, while remaining alert to rising female trends in certain countries.

Male vs Female Smoking Rates in Europe (2005)

The bubble chart visualizes the smoking behavior of European countries in 2005, comparing male and female smoking rates on the x and y axes respectively. Each bubble represents a country, and the bubble size corresponds to the gender smoking gap (i.e., the absolute difference between male and female smoking rates).

Europe in 2005 showed relatively high smoking rates among both men and women, but with varying degrees of gender disparity. Countries in Western and Northern Europe (e.g., Denmark, Switzerland) appear to have more gender-equal smoking behaviors, while some Eastern and Southeastern European countries (e.g., Albania, Bosnia) reflect traditional gender norms where smoking is predominantly a male behavior.

Average Smoking Rates by Continent and Gender (2005)

The grouped bar chart compares average smoking rates between men and women across different continents in the year 2005. Each pair of bars represents male and female smoking prevalence for a given continent.

The chart clearly reveals that gender plays a major role in smoking behaviors across continents. Asia shows the widest gender disparity, while Europe shows the highest overall prevalence with more gender parity. These patterns offer important cues for targeted tobacco control policies, where interventions may need to be gender-sensitive and region-specific.

Male Chart Insights
  1. Countries like Mongolia and Egypt show very high liver cancer death rates but moderate or low smoking rates.

  2. The gender gap in smoking is significant—in many of these countries, male smoking rates are far higher than female, which may partially explain why male liver cancer deaths are higher.

Female Chart Insights
  1. Mongolia and Gambia again top the list for liver cancer deaths in women, but their female smoking rates are very low, further reinforcing the role of non-smoking contributors.

  2. There’s generally a weaker correlation between smoking and liver cancer in women compared to men which may be due to lower female smoking prevalence in many countries.

This study explored the relationship between liver cancer death rates and smoking prevalence across countries using Gapminder data from 2005 and 1990–2019. It focused on gender-specific patterns, regional differences, and the strength of association between smoking and liver cancer.

  1. Liver Cancer Mortality Shows Wide Global Variation
  • Countries like Mongolia, Egypt, and China consistently exhibit high liver cancer death rates, especially among men.

  • Developed countries show more stable or declining trends, likely due to improved healthcare and preventive measures.

  1. Male Liver Cancer Death Rates Are Significantly Higher Than Female Rates
  • A clear gender gap exists, with most countries reporting higher mortality in men,linked to behavior (e.g., smoking, alcohol), biology, and occupational exposures.
  1. Smoking Patterns Are Gender and Region-Specific
  • Asia has the highest male smoking rates but very low female rates, showing strong gender disparities.

  • Europe has high rates among both men and women, suggesting broader cultural acceptance of smoking.

  • Africa shows low smoking prevalence, particularly among women.

  1. Smoking Alone Does Not Fully Explain Liver Cancer Trends
  • While countries like Russia, Indonesia, and Vietnam exhibit alignment between smoking and liver cancer rates in men, others (e.g., Egypt and Mongolia) show high death rates but low smoking prevalence—indicating the influence of other factors like:

  • Hepatitis B/C infections

  • Alcohol consumption

  • Environmental or occupational toxins

  • Limited access to early diagnosis and treatment

Loading ITables v2.4.3 from the internet... (need help?)

This analysis uses publicly available datasets from Gapminder, which compiles reliable global statistics from institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations (UN), and World Bank.

Key Indicators:
  • Liver Cancer Death Rates
    • Annual deaths per 100,000 people
    • Separate data for men and women
    • Covers the period 1955 - 2019
  • Smoking Prevalence (2000 - 2005)
    • Percetage of adults (15+) who smoke
    • Separate data for men and women
Coverage:
  • Over 150 countries
  • Grouped by continent
  • Includes standardized ISO3 country codes for geospatial visualizations

These datasets were cleaned, merged, and transformed to enable gender-based, temporal, and cross-continental comparisons.